Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 10:51:49 -0400 (EDT) From: "Paul W. Cockshott" <cockshpw-AT-wfu.edu> Subject: Re: More about that relative autonomy thing On Wed, 28 Sep 1994, Philip Goldstein wrote: > This allows for control through the appearance of "relative autonomy." > To take it a step further, intellectuals serve, Gramsci argues, pretty > much as functionaries of the superstructure, as mouthpieces which hold > up the hegemonic forces. I don't think I would go so far as to say > the academy defines or did define what culture is or was. I also would > maintain that the academy, as an institution, not as individuals, is, > like Althusser and Stuart Hall and countless others point out, merely > is an Idological apparatus of the state. So, any cultural formation, > which would then, using the previous argument, lead to social formation, ends > up being a product of the state, or the borgeoisie (whichever terms you want > to use)." There are two problems with this position. One, the position > assumes that you can occupy a place outside the system and understand its > workings in a neutral, systematic way. More precisely, Marxists who work > within the system are corrupted and need to find some place outside it > within which they can preserve their integrity and critique its > operations. Where is this outside place? Who else will occupy it? Marxists within the university can only overcome their own class position through involvement with the working-class movement, contact with working-class militants and participation in their struggles. > Second, the position assumes that the system reproduces itself as a > coherent whole and not as a fractured and divided entity. To work with > the system is to maintain it coherently and not to subvert it from > within. Postmodernists argue against the system's ability to reproduce > itself coherently and to preclude indeterminacy and ambiguity. > So what. We have known since the 30s and Godel that any linguistic system is ambiguous, but what has this got to do with class politics? ------------------
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